Corporate art collecting: A survey of German-speaking companies

The author discusses a survey of companies with art collections in German-speaking countries-Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Drawing on the data collected in the survey, he highlights the differences between two groups of curators currently responsible for corporate art collections, the ``new professionals'' and the ``management administrators.'' First, organizational changes in corporations that occurred during the ``founding boom'' of the 1990s had a significant effect on the roles of corporate art managers, introducing the art-educated ``new professional'' into the process, which before then had been controlled by the corporate-trained ``management administrators. Second, the nature, content, and styles of current corporate art collections reflect specific ``corporate cultures.'' Third, the ``new professional'' corporate art curators purchase contemporary art for their collections at art fairs, a reality that has significant impact on the art market. The author concludes with an analysis of the relationship between these new professional corporate collectors and the contemporary art market by highlighting significant changes in pre- and post-1990 corporate art collections.